Just Salad, the fast-casual concept serving healthy food at an affordable price, announced Tuesday a collaboration with American fashion designer and social activist Kenneth Cole to design, create and provide face masks to all Just Salad employees to keep them protected while working during the ongoing pandemic. The face masks will be given to thousands of employees in 45 locations in the greater New York City area, Chicago, Philadelphia, North Carolina, and Florida.
The partnership came to fruition after executives at Kenneth Cole noticed the tremendous work Just Salad was doing and continues to do to support families and frontline workers in New York City during the COVID-19 crisis. The masks, which will come in Just Salad’s signature shade of Navy blue are being produced in Los Angeles and will have “ESSENTIAL” printed across the front with Kenneth Cole x Just Salad printed on the bottom right corner. These reusable masks also perfectly align with Just Salad’s ongoing commitment to reusability, waste reduction, and belief that planetary and human health are complementary imperatives.
“We always seek to partner with like-minded brands to make a positive impact in our community,” said Nick Kenner, Founder and CEO at Just Salad. “We felt the work Kenneth Cole Productions has done to highlight frontline workers via The New Courageous Class initiatives perfectly aligns with our ongoing mission during this unprecedented time. The safety of our staff and guests has always been, and remains top priority, and we thank Kenneth and his team for enabling us to provide these masks. ”
“When we saw the work Just Salad was doing in support of the first responders during these unprecedented times, we reached out in the hope to feature these employees in our New Courageous Class campaign,” said Kenneth Cole, Founder and CEO of Kenneth Cole Productions. “We are proud to design this important accessory that these individuals will wear proudly and hope that this is the first of many programs we can do together to shine a light on the everyday heroes in our community.”
The collaboration comes on the heels of several other Just Salad initiatives focused on feeding the frontlines and serving its communities during this time, including donating 10,000 meals a week to frontline workers at Mount Sinai hospitals, launching Just Grocery, a new service delivering pantry staples household essentials and meal kits and launching the company’s partnership with Little Owl Chef Joey Campanaro to create The Big Apple salad.